The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

2013

Comedy / Romance

Synopsis

A veteran Vegas magician tries to revive his career after his longtime partner quits, he gets fired from his casino act, and an edgy new "street magician" steals his thunder.

Superstar magicians Burt Wonderstone (Steve Carell) and Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi) have ruled the Las Vegas Strip for years, raking in millions with illusions as big as Burt's growing ego. But lately the duo's greatest deception is their public friendship, while secretly they've grown to loathe each other. Facing cutthroat competition from guerrilla street magician Steve Gray (Jim Carrey), whose cult following surges with each outrageous stunt, even their show is starting to look stale. But there's still a chance Burt and Anton can save the act - both onstage and off - if only Burt can get back in touch with what made him love magic in the first place.

Tech specs

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by cynthia-ostrich6 / 10

An Enjoyable Watch

A lot of times I go into a movie with an opinion already formed about it. It's not based on any research or critical reviews, simply on the trailer. That was case with The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. My opinion of the film was not too positive going in. I was dragged to it by a friend of mine with questionable taste in movies to begin with. I could have not been more surprised. I found myself laughing through the entire feature.

The movie is pretty farcical to say the least, at some junctures borderline silly, but found myself quite enjoying the humor. It was a nice change of pace from all the recent comedies that have to go to the extreme with language and sex humor to make their point. It pokes fun at inter-workings of the illusionist and the final scene before the credits is classic.

The characters were very well cast. It is no secret based on past films and TV that Steve Carrell has experience in magic tricks, and he pulls it off in the film. It was also refreshing to see Steve Buscemi reprise a comedic role and carry, an impressive contrast to bootlegger Knucky Thompson. And as you would expect, Jim Carrey steals the show as the antagonistic shock magician, Steve Gray. For those who like these actors, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is a silly, light hearted but enjoyable hour and forty minute movie.

Reviewed by B B5 / 10

So So Comedy

Good comedy has a ring of truth and reality to it. This movie was mostly nonsensical. It had some laughs here and there, but I was pretty much the only one in the audience of three parties laughing. I think the comedians in it are funny, but the story is kind of shallow and stupid.

It wasn't a total waste of time but it wasn't something that held your attention very well either. It was sort of a time killer type comedy. Parts of it were just plain disgusting or scary, making it hard to laugh. People in the audience actually seemed to be in a bad mood watching it.

Jim Carey was funny as a sex symbol magician and Alan Arkin was funny as a cranky old man. They were just funny characters. There were little ironic jokes here and there but the piece didn't hold together well.

Reviewed by rivertam265 / 10

Starts off solid enough and than slowly deflates

I didn't have high expectations for this film to begin with and to be honest it was a bit more engaging than I would have expected. But the promises of the films extravagant concept and it's cast of comic gold leaves a lot to be desired. Set in the world of Magic, the film centers on a magician named Burt Wonderstone played underwhelmingly by a seemingly uninspired Steve Carrell. It chronicles quickly his rise from a young geek to a lead magician on the Vegas strip. But after a wannabe, stomach churning magician played by a sexy but forced Jim Carrey shows up to make waves it causes conflict with his long time partner, a better than expected Steve Buscemi and their show suffers for it. It ends up in their friendship and show breaking up and from that point on chronicles Steve Wonderstone's self discovery and journey back on top. If your feeling this all sounds fairly melodramatic it's because it mostly is. Despite some inspired funny bits with Olivia Wilde the film's stand out surprise comic performance and a few moments with Alan Arkin as a former magician it's all fairly generic and predictable and not very funny. That being said although the film misses a lot more than it hits it's still fairly engaging on a story level and somewhere along the way you end up caring just a smidge about the characters. But all that falls apart in an unfunny mean third act that confuses the films seemingly solid message. Overly mediocre. 2.5/5